A hilarious saga of family renewal and last-chance romance that plucks the heartstrings.
An aged Jewish woman kvetches her way toward love while solving everyone else’s problems in Monheit’s bittersweet comic novel.
Goldie Mandell, a 90-year-old widow ensconced at the Riverdale Adult Community Residence in the Bronx, is sharp as a tack and busy with projects, fending off (and perhaps secretly welcoming) the affections of her neighbor, Harry, while finding a marriageable Jewish doctor for her granddaughter, Maxie Jacobson, a PhD student. She hits on a plan to accomplish this last goal by faking illnesses and making appointments with physicians whom her research indicates fit the profile, dragging Maxie along as her medical advocate to meet the prospects. Her strategy lands Maxie a man but, unfortunately, by Goldie’s lights, he’s the worst conceivable man: He’s T-Jam Bin Naumann, an adjunct art professor who moonlights as a driver for the car service Goldie takes to an appointment—and he dresses abominably (“A grown man, if that is what he is, in shorts?”, she observes. “Like he outgrew his pants and cut them off halfway. Why a hat and shorts? It’s either hot or cold. He can’t figure it out?”). Goldie gradually thaws toward the art professor, but age intrudes when one of her fake maladies turns real. Intertwined with Goldie’s present-day picaresque are her sometimes glowing, sometimes plangent reflections on the past—her childhood in Germany and exile to America in 1938, her exuberant young love with husband Mordy, and her estrangement from her daughter, Tamar, who moved to Berkeley and became a lawyer. Goldie is a spellbinding protagonist, full of dudgeon and crabby insights into all things newfangled. Monheit’s sparkling prose poetically and humorously conveys the collision of romantic dreams with crotchety reality: “He pulls himself up, then stands with one hand on his walker, and in the middle of everything, in the courtyard, he starts like he’s Nat King Cole, crooning how I’m unforgettable. What’s to forget? He doesn’t know me from Adam. Where is the staff when you need them?”
A hilarious saga of family renewal and last-chance romance that plucks the heartstrings.Pub Date: May 7, 2024
ISBN: 9781960573971
Page Count: 328
Publisher: Sibylline Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.
The sequel to It Ends With Us (2016) shows the aftermath of domestic violence through the eyes of a single mother.
Lily Bloom is still running a flower shop; her abusive ex-husband, Ryle Kincaid, is still a surgeon. But now they’re co-parenting a daughter, Emerson, who's almost a year old. Lily won’t send Emerson to her father’s house overnight until she’s old enough to talk—“So she can tell me if something happens”—but she doesn’t want to fight for full custody lest it become an expensive legal drama or, worse, a physical fight. When Lily runs into Atlas Corrigan, a childhood friend who also came from an abusive family, she hopes their friendship can blossom into love. (For new readers, their history unfolds in heartfelt diary entries that Lily addresses to Finding Nemo star Ellen DeGeneres as she considers how Atlas was a calming presence during her turbulent childhood.) Atlas, who is single and running a restaurant, feels the same way. But even though she’s divorced, Lily isn’t exactly free. Behind Ryle’s veneer of civility are his jealousy and resentment. Lily has to plan her dates carefully to avoid a confrontation. Meanwhile, Atlas’ mother returns with shocking news. In between, Lily and Atlas steal away for romantic moments that are even sweeter for their authenticity as Lily struggles with child care, breastfeeding, and running a business while trying to find time for herself.
Through palpable tension balanced with glimmers of hope, Hoover beautifully captures the heartbreak and joy of starting over.Pub Date: Oct. 18, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-668-00122-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2022
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Slow and plodding.
A young woman with a magical ability to harness light discovers she is royalty.
Talasyn is a foot soldier for her homeland of Sardovia, which has been under attack for the past decade by the powerful and evil Night Empire, a conflict known as the Hurricane Wars. Talasyn is an orphan with no knowledge of her family, but she assumes they might be the source of her rare, magical Lightweaving talent. During a battle with the forces of the Night Empire, Talasyn spars with Prince Alaric, a fierce warrior who is the son and heir to the Night Emperor. Talasyn is sent on a covert mission into Nenavar, a nearby matriarchy that has remained neutral during the Hurricane Wars, to try to access a Light Sever which could hone and refine her magic. Instead, she discovers she is the heir to their royal throne; she and her mother, now presumed dead, disappeared under mysterious circumstances when she was a year old. Alaric follows her into Nenavar, and they discover his magical ability to cast darkness and shadows produces shocking results when mixed with her Lightweaving. A few weeks later, the Night Empire defeats Sardovia and ends the Hurricane Wars, and the novel transitions to a tedious, slow-moving story of court intrigue and diplomacy. A group of Sardovian soldiers and refugees seek asylum in Nenavar, but Talasyn’s grandmother agrees to protect them only if Talasyn agrees to join the royal court and marry Alaric. The politics surrounding the impending wedding is the primary plot for the rest of the novel, and it’s a slog. The glacially slow pacing only serves to highlight the confusing world building and underdeveloped characters. It’s unclear why Alaric and Talasyn are attracted to each other, and their tentative romance is just as stuck in a rut as the plot.
Slow and plodding.Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780063277274
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2023
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